The Twilight Zone Radio Dramas, Volume 1

Experience one of television’s greatest science fiction series: The Twilight Zone. This collection of episodes is fully dramatized for audio and features a full cast, music, sound effects, and performances by some of today’s biggest celebrities.

The Great Escape

It was a split-second operation as delicate and as deadly as a time bomb. It demanded the concentrated devotion and vigilance of more than six hundred men for every hour, every day, and every night for more than a year. With only their bare hands and crude homemade tools, they sank shafts, built underground railroads, forged passports, drew maps, faked weapons, and tailored German clothes.

The Invisible Man

On a freezing February day, a stranger emerges from out of the gray to request a room at a local provincial inn. Who is this out-of-season traveler? More confounding is the thick mask of bandages obscuring his face. Why does he disguise himself in this manner and keep himself hidden away in his room? Aroused by trepidation and curiosity, the local villagers bring it upon themselves to find the answers.

John Quincy Adams

He fought for Washington, served with Lincoln, witnessed Bunker Hill, and sounded the clarion against slavery on the eve of the Civil War. He negotiated an end to the War of 1812, engineered the annexation of Florida, and won the Supreme Court decision that freed the African captives of La Amistad. He served his nation as minister to six countries, secretary of state, senator, congressman, and president. John Quincy Adams was all of these things and more. In this masterful biography, award-winning author Harlow Giles Unger reveals Adams as a towering figure in the nation’s formative years.

The Death of Ivan Ilyich

Hailed as one of the world’s masterpieces of psychological realism, The Death of Ivan Ilyich is the story of a worldly careerist, a high-court judge who has never given the inevitability of his death so much as a passing thought. But one day death announces itself to him, and to his shocked surprise he is brought face-to-face with his own mortality. How, Tolstoy asks, does an unreflective man confront his one and only moment of truth?

Being There

Academy Award winner Dustin Hoffman gives an understated and exemplary performance of this satiric look at the unreality of American media culture. Chance, the enigmatic gardener, becomes Chauncey Gardiner after getting hit by a limo belonging to a Wall Street tycoon. The whirlwind that follows brings Chance to his new status of political policy advisor and possible vice presidential candidate. His garden-variety political responses, inspired by television, become heralded as visionary, and he is soon a media icon.

A Doll House

A new recording of Henrik Ibsen's masterpiece, starring Calista Flockhart. Nora Helmer has everything a young housewife could want: beautiful children, an adoring husband, and a bright future. But when a carelessly buried secret rises from the past, Nora's well-calibrated domestic ideal starts to crumble. Ibsen's play is as fresh today as it was when it first stormed the stages of 19th-century Europe.

The Maltese Falcon

Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon, first serialized in a magazine in 1930, is best known through the iconic Humphrey Bogart film of 1941. But it was the book that created the classic "noir" genre with its tough private detective threading his cool way between the criminals and the law. Sam Spade, the private eye solving the mystery of the Maltese statuette, was the template for Philip Marlowe and a host of others…. but they come no more shrewd and cunning with Hammett peppering the text with one-liners.

The Search for Exoplanets: What Astronomers Know

As recently as 1990, it seemed plausible that the solar system was a unique phenomenon in our galaxy. Thanks to advances in technology and clever new uses of existing data, now we know that planetary systems and possibly even a new Earth can be found throughout galaxies near and far.

If one George Carlin audio is funny, then two are funnier and three must be funniest, right? That's our thinking behind this new collection. t's a HighBridge library of laugh-out-loud, award-winning recordings featuring George himself performing many of his best bits.

Black Like Me

Writer John Howard Griffin (1920-1980) decided to perform an experiment in order to learn from the inside out how one race could withstand the second class citizenship imposed on it by another race. Through medication, he dyed his skin dark and left his family and home in Texas to find out.

All Quiet on the Western Front

Paul Bäumer is just 19 years old when he and his classmates enlist. They are Germany’s Iron Youth who enter the war with high ideals and leave it disillusioned or dead. As Paul struggles with the realities of the man he has become, and the world to which he must return, he is led like a ghost of his former self into the war’s final hours. All Quiet is one of the greatest war novels of all time, an eloquent expression of the futility, hopelessness and irreparable losses of war.

Seven Years in Tibet

A landmark in travel writing, this is the incredible true story of Heinrich Harrer’s escape across the Himalayas to Tibet, set against the backdrop of the Second World War. Heinrich Harrer, already one of the greatest mountaineers of his time, was climbing in the Himalayas when war broke out in Europe. He was imprisoned by the British in India but succeeded in escaping and fled to Tibet.

Gilgamesh: A New English Version

This brilliant new treatment of the world's oldest epic is a literary event on par with Seamus Heaney's wildly popular Beowulf translation. Esteemed translator and best-selling author Stephen Mitchell energizes a heroic tale so old it predates Homer's Iliad by more than a millennium.

The Red Badge of Courage

Stephen Crane's classic novel gives us a glimpse into the mind of a young soldier as he passes through the experience he will never be able to forget, and possibly awaken him from his slumber in a sweat and panic for years to come.

Beatrix Potter Classics

Enter the world of Beatrix Potter and her endearing anthropomorphic animals. These treasured characters have become every child's playmates and have found a home in every child's heart. Say hello to Nutkin the Squirrel and Benjamin Bunny, along with their many friends.

A Thousand Miles to Freedom: My Escape from North Korea

Eunsun Kim was born in North Korea, one of the most secretive and oppressive countries in the modern world. As a child, Eunsun loved her country...despite her school field trips to public executions, daily self-criticism sessions, and the increasing gnaw of hunger as the countrywide famine escalated. By the time she was 11 years old, Eunsun's father and grandparents had died of starvation, and Eunsun too was in danger of starving. Finally her mother decided to escape North Korea with Eunsun and her sister.

The Little Book of Talent: 52 Tips for Improving Your Skills

Daniel Coyle spent the last few years traveling around the world and meeting with top coaches, teachers, and neurologists in order to unlock the secret of how greatness happens. Now he has taken his groundbreaking research and boiled it down to the essentials: 52 simple, proven rules for developing and growing talent in sports, art, music, business, or just about anything.

Thirteen: The Apollo Flight That Failed

"Houston, we've had a problem here." On the evening of April 13, 1970, the three astronauts aboard Apollo 13 were just hours from the third lunar landing in history. But as they soared through space, two hundred thousand miles from earth, an explosion badly damaged their spacecraft. With compromised engines and failing life-support systems, the crew was in incomparably grave danger.

Fight Club

When a listless office employee (the narrator) meets Tyler Durden, his life begins to take on a strange new dimension. Together they form Fight Club - a secretive underground group sponsoring bloody bare-knuckle boxing matches staged in seedy alleys, vacant warehouses, and dive-bar basements. Fight Club lets ordinary men vent their suppressed rage, and it quickly develops a fanatical following.

Breakfast at Tiffany's

Golden Globe-winning actor Michael C. Hall (Six Feet Under) performs Truman Capote's masterstroke about a young writer's charmed fascination with his unorthodox neighbor, the "American geisha" Holly Golightly. Holly - a World War II-era society girl in her late teens - survives via socialization, attending parties and restaurants with men from the wealthy upper class who also provide her with money and expensive gifts. Over the course of the novella, the seemingly shallow Holly slowly opens up to the curious protagonist.

Keep Moving: And Other Tips and Truths About Aging

With a fun and folksy way of addressing its audience, Keep Moving serves as an instruction audiobook on how to embrace old age with a positive attitude. The chapters are filled with exclusive personal anecdotes that explore various themes on aging: how to adapt to the physical and social changes, deal with loss of friends and loved ones, stay current, fall in love again, and "keep moving" every day like there's no tomorrow.

The Invasion of the Body Snatchers

On a quiet fall evening in the small, peaceful town of Mill Valley, California, Dr. Miles Bennell discovers an insidious, horrifying plot. Silently, subtly, almost imperceptibly, alien life-forms are taking over the bodies and minds of his neighbors, his friends, his family, the woman he loves, and the world as he knows it.

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde

When a brute of a man tramples an innocent girl, apparently out of spite, two bystanders catch the fellow and force him to pay reparations to the girl's family. The brute's name is Edward Hyde. A respected lawyer, Utterson, hears this story and begins to unravel the seemingly manic behavior of his best friend, Dr. Henry Jekyll, and his connection with Hyde.

Publisher's Summary

Over the course of a steamy and tense afternoon, 12 jurors deliberate the fate of a 19-year-old boy alleged to have murdered his own father. A seemingly open and shut case turns complicated, igniting passions and hidden prejudices.

This audio also includes an interview with Reginald Rose's widow, Ellen, in which she talks about how her late husband came to write the original teleplay version of Twelve Angry Men.

What the Critics Say

Audie Award Finalist, Audio Drama, 2007

Audie Award Finalist, Audiobook Adapted from Another Medium, 2007

"This tidy portrait of clashing social attitudes in a jury room definitely creaks with age. But somehow the creaks begin to sound like soothing music, a siren song from a period of American drama when personalities were drawn in clean lines, the moral was unmistakable, and the elements of a plot clicked together like a jigsaw puzzle without a single missing piece." (The New York Times)

I had seen the movie years ago in black and white. So when I saw that this was a dramatization of the book I wanted to get it. It did not disappoint. I was glued to my seat. I didn't want to stop listening to it. I just really enjoyed this book. You get so into it and it makes you think about how we judge one another based really on nothing really at all but; impressions, stereotypes, life experience with someone similar but rarely on fact. This was excellent it, listen to it and then share it.!!!

Twelve men, jurors in a court case, gather to discuss the guilt or innocence of a young man accused of murder. What happens in the jury room is an incisive look at the jury system and American justice system. This audiobook is brilliantly cast and makes the transition from a stage play very well. It's engaging and entertaining, dramatic and moving. Well worth listening to, and will not disappoint on repeated listenings.

This is a short dramatized program, I purchased this offering earlier this morning, and have listened to most of this with my wife; who does not often listen to this type of program, and we BOTH loved it. I have recommended this to friends via email, and will be purchasing as a gift for family later this date.

What did you like best about this story?

Dramatized very well. Excellent exchanges between members on jury. Very well acted.

What does the narrators bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

This Dramatized presentation is excellent, Makes it easy to close your eyes and become a member of the jury, present in the same room. Very interesting how I can become a part of the experience with this format.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

This presentation clearly highlights, How One person can make a significant difference. How most of us are so involved in our own experiences that we take very little time to truly consider the status of others. Moral: We need each other, and thank God for those who stand against the majority and raise a hand to promote discussion and interaction.

Students at our school are studying the play script of Twelve Angry Men, but this performance really brought it to life. I started listening to it myself to see whether it was OK for the students. I listened all the way to the end without realising the time had passed. Bravo! Encore!

Having previously seen the movie, read the script, and directed a high school production of this play (using its alternative title Twelve Angry Citizens), I thought I knew Reginald Rose's masterpiece too well to discover anything new. So it came as a huge surprise to discover that this LA TheatreWorks production felt as fresh as if the script had been written yesterday, rather than in 1954 shortly after Rose himself sat on a jury in a manslaughter trial. Jurors 3, 7 and 10 stand out as obvious Trump supporters; their rhetoric in favor of a quick guilty verdict sounds very like recent "Man on the street" commentary we've all heard in media interviews conducted with attendees at Make America Great Again rallies. Juror #10, in particular, gives an impassioned speech toward the end of the play that is a near-duplicate of Trump's "They're murderers and they're rapists" speech (See "They're violent and they're vicious," Act Two). My husband and I were both riveted listening to this audiobook, and now want to play it over again so the kids can hear it. It also inspired us to order a DVD of the powerful 1957 film.

There was only one drawback to listening, apart from the fact that the visual impact of switchblade knives being brandished and stabbed into tabletops was lost. While this production is excellent, it wasn't always easy to get a sense of the jurors as individuals or to always know which one was talking at any given time. For example, I could tell which voice was Hector Elizondo, but was unable to determine whether protagonist Juror #8 was the one being portrayed by vocal chameleon Dan Castellaneta. I'm looking forward to listening again so I can figure it out!

I've seen the wonderful movie adaptation of this play (1957), and that helped bring this audio dramatization to life - I'm not sure it's quite as powerful without having a true feeling of the setting and behaviours. Plays are written to be performed, and without exposition (describing the setting, movements, expressions, etc) there is something always missing from only hearing the dialogue, unless you're already aware of those elements (or unless you're reading the set direction, etc.)

However, if you've seen this play on stage or in one of the film versions, this is a wonderfully performed version that will take shape in your mind quite easily.

As a disclosure, the actual performance is about 20 minutes shorter than the production time of this audiobook, which includes at the end an interview with the playwright's widow about the play.

A great study on assumtions. As one writer put it, when you assume something you make an "ass" of "u" and "me." That is what this book is all about, assuming something to be true because you want it to be true. Thank goodness there are those who are willing to put forth the effort to look deeper into things to find the real truth. Sadly, it doesn't work that way for everyone who is falsely accused, but when it does, it has to be deeply rewarding for the innocent.